By Riley Kaminer
If you own property in South Florida, you know what (expensive) property and casualty insurance can look like.
“In the state of Florida in general – not just Miami – the situation with insurance and P&C is a bit alarming. » Neural Laboratories CEO Blair Austin Childs said Refresh Miami. “You see premiums go from x dollars to 2x, 3x dollars. This is never a good sign.
But in this alarming situation, Childs sees opportunity. “When you see a market where some players are reacting and changing direction and potentially withdrawing from the markets altogether, that’s a sign of a lack of clarity around predictive capabilities.”
So Childs leveraged his experience in M&A and corporate finance and did some good old-fashioned research. “We dug deeper into this with some of our strategic partners and understood why this existed and where the opportunity lies.”
The end result of this investigation is Neural Earth, Neural Labs’ AI-powered platform that leverages data analytics to uncover unique insights. Insurance is the first product – the first tangible application of the platform’s capabilities – with a handful of additional areas still in the works (and secret for now).
“We are use case agnostic,” Childs said. “We are building a platform to meet as many needs as possible.” Assurance was a logical first step due to the significant need, as well as the opportunity to test with a key industry partner. The ultimate goal: to allow this company and others to better understand where the real risk lies for each property, rather than having to raise rates across the board for all residents in a particular region.
To fuel Neural Earth’s development, the company closed an oversubscribed $1.4 million pre-seed funding round. Although the exact investors are not disclosed, Childs reported that participants included executives from the real estate and insurance industries.
Childs, a Washington, D.C. native, moved to Florida two years ago, first landing in Tampa before settling in Miami. Alongside Childs is CTO Dan Lopez, a serial entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Radiant Earth and was part of the leadership of space platform Arkisys.
The next steps for Childs and his team include bringing the first product to market before quickly moving on to the second and third products. The company also plans to launch a seed round to further accelerate its growth and adoption of our technology.
“We are excited about what lies ahead in the next 12 to 18 months,” Childs said. “I think it’s going to be an acceleration trajectory, and we’re ready to go.”
Neural Earth already has 15 full-time employees, about a third of whom are based in South Florida. Childs said the company will be expanding its team very soon, particularly in terms of engineering talent. “We are open to people outside of Miami or Florida, but we are definitely interested in creating opportunities in the state.”
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